Lecture 8: “Classroom Management I ”

A major problem we have is that individualized learning is difficult. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that people learn in different ways. Because people learn in different ways we ought to have opportunities for individualized learning. Some people learn slower, some people learn faster. Some people have different styles of learning. We know that some people are visual learners and some are verbal. We ought to have the opportunity to provide different stimuli or multi media stimuli for students to assist in their learning process. But the rigid schedule of schools don't really allow for individualization. One of the places where this becomes really sad is that you as a teacher, you're going to be dealing with 25 or 30 kids in a classroom. Let's say you're really good and as a result of being a really good teacher you diagnose your students in terms of their individual problems. Now that you've done that, how can you help them? You still have 29 other students. Where do you park the other students when you're giving individual attention? The way that the schedule and the organization of school are set up, it doesn't encourage individualized learning. I would argue that that is very different than ideal. To deal with the difficulties associated with this type of problem, each teacher needs to be an expert of classroom management. Teachers need strategies for maintaining control of a classroom of 30 individuals. This can be a difficult problem to tackle, but once mastered, classroom management can help you maximize your students’ learning.

Classroom Management-

The first thing I want to introduce you to is called the Universal Principle of Classroom Management: put as much distance between each student and the door as possible. I don't mean geographically, I mean metaphorically. At the very beginning of the school year, some teachers make the mistake of saying 'In this class, I will accept no nonsense. The first time I hear a peep out of anyone, that person is out of here!' The distance between the student and the door is nearly zero. One offense and you are gone. If you send one student to the vice-principal, the student is in big trouble. If you send two students, then two students are in trouble. If you send three students to the vice-principal, you're in trouble. Vice-principals do not want to see your students. The most successful teachers, from a vice-principal's point of view, never send any students to the office for discipline. Every time you send a student to the vice-principal, you are creating a problem for him or her. The lesson here is that anything you do to put distance between your students and the door is going to benefit the vice-principal, the students, and you.

The second cousin to this principle is that student privilege creates teacher power. The more privileges you put into the classroom, the more power you have. You may think that giving students privileges is doing them a favor, but giving kids privileges is helping you. This is the case because it enables you to have more ways to control your students. Every time you create a reward, you have something to take away. That is control. Other than throwing a kid out of the classroom, what can you really do? The only other thing is to take points off if they do something bad. What you're saying in that case is that if a kid talks then he learned less Algebra than if he didn't talk. In order for you to give yourself power, you have to give your kids lots of rewards. Another part of this is private discussion. If you are trying to negotiate control with your kids, it is often better to do that in private. You are going to get much further with your students if you talk with them in private.

I would think my lecture today is successful if by the end of the day you know a couple of ways to control a class that you didn't know about before we started. If in every lecture you attended during teacher training you learned one or two new ways of controlling a class, you would have a huge arsenal by the end. This morning I am going to suggest to you a few different methods. You choose the one or two that you didn't know about.

Most teachers never think about the idea that creating rewards is the most effective means of control. It is a matter of survival for you to create rewards. The bottom line is that if the kids think what you are doing is cool, you are all set. If the kids don't think what you are doing is cool, it will not work. You must decide how these principles work for you in terms of the kind of classroom you want.

Another technique for establishing control is individual contacts. For example, you might say 'Susie, I know you have trouble not talking, but I don't want to keep stopping the class. Why don't you and I just understand that if I walk by you and tap my fingers on your desk that means you need to stop talking.' This can be very effective because not only can the student deal with the behavior, but what you're saying to the kid is 'Look, I know you are having a hard time living up to what we are doing here and I want to help you.' This way the kid knows that you are really interested in helping them. Not all kids respond to this all the time, but kids do respond to the fact that the teacher is trying to help them to do better.

In another lecture we will discuss being mysterious and delaying responses, but I want to underline them here, because they are powerful indicators of your control. Remember that any time a kid thinks you are going to respond only in real time, a lack of response indicates to them that their behavior has gone unnoticed and unchecked.

Perhaps it is even more important for teachers to learn to be selectively blind. There are many unsuccessful teachers who HAVE to see everything. It is almost a matter of moral principle. If I have a rule against talking and you are talking then I have to hold you accountable. If not I create a moral dilemma for myself. I am not being fair to others if I don't notice your transgression. I really urge you to stay away from that. Always ask yourself 'If I see this behavior, am I going to be ahead or behind the game? By seeing this behavior am I helping or hindering the student this student's learning?' There are all sorts of reasons I don't choose to see certain kinds of behavior. I urge you to have in your repertoire this notion of selective blindness. One of the ways you control your class is by choosing what you see. If you don't have this principle in mind, if you have to see everything, instead of feeling like you are in control, every time you see something, you are driven to respond in a knee-jerk way. The idea of having delayed response or no response or selective response or variable response is very important in helping you feel that you have control over your class.

Ultimately, you are going to win with your students if they think you are reasonable. That perception of reasonableness goes a long way. If people view each other as reasonable, they'll cut each other a lot of slack. If they think they are unreasonable they won't cut each other any slack. In other words, one of the double whammies of prejudice is that if I think you are prejudiced against me, I will be actively watching you for behaviors that indicate this perceived prejudice. That doesn't give anybody room for any error. If you have a perception of reasonableness though, everybody cuts everybody some slack and that always works better. We have to find ways to cut each other some slack and that is a very important part of this whole process. Therefore you have to think of one of your objectives in terms of controlling your class as the objective of creating the image of reasonableness. Sometimes it is more important for you to create the image of reasonableness than it is for you to enforce punishment. Reasonableness is a big, powerful part of the game.

A classroom of privilege has twin pillars of reward and punishment. Privilege, reward, and punishment are terms we have used previously, but before we proceed with this discussion, I'd like to clarify the differences.

A privilege is something that students get just because they are part of your class. No one has to do anything to get a privilege, but they have to perform to certain standard expectations in order to maintain the privilege. There is an assumption that privileges last until something happens to cause you to remove one or more of them.

Rewards are something special that you give students for some particularly outstanding performance. In our discussion on reinforcement strategies, we talked about tokens, which are a form of reward. Praise is another reward we've talked about. Most of the time, rewards are not taken away after they've been given. But you, as the teacher, decide on who gets a reward and who doesn't. Rewards reinforce positive behaviors.

Punishment is something that you impose on students that is particularly distasteful to them. The purpose of using punishment is to emphasize your desire for students NOT to behave in a certain way. Generally, rewards and privileges are more useful to control student behavior, but in some instances, when a particular behavior could cause serious harm, when it has been repeated too many times, or when a student fails to respond to a reward or privilege, punishment might be your only recourse. A less obvious form of punishment is when a privilege is removed or when a reward is not given. The most powerful punishments you have available to you as a teacher involve taking away privileges.

Privileges

Let's take an inventory of privileges. I hope that from this list you will learn some things that you wouldn't have intuitively thought about. One I have mentioned before is seating choice. If you assign kids to seats, anytime you move them you are likely to move them to a place they like better. So moving kids is only a weapon if you have allowed them to choose where they get to sit. Allowing kids to choose where they want to sit doesn't mean you have to have a chaotic classroom, though. The first day the kids come in say, 'When you come into class tomorrow, sit where you want to sit for the rest of the semester. I will be making a seating chart so I can get to know you.' They get to choose their seating assignment, but it is also stable and you get all the benefits of having assigned seats. From your point of view, it is as easy to learn their names out of alphabetical order as it is in alphabetical order. There is virtually no downside to letting kids choose their own seats.

Another privilege is consultation on rules. It is very tempting for you to start out saying 'These are the rules and you need to know them.' There are two big wins in terms of consulting with students on the rules. First of all, any time people have had a role in setting the rules, they are more likely to abide by them. The second big win is that kids almost always make more stringent rules than you would come up with. When you get kids talking theoretically about rules, they get carried away. Think of how much you win in terms of reasonableness if you say to the kids, 'I really don't think I have to throw you out of the class after I have warned you twice about talking. I think we can handle it ourselves a little longer than that.' Instead of you being the big bad wolf, you are on the kids' side - protecting them from themselves.

To involve students in establishing classroom rules, don't just start out by saying 'Okay, what rules do we need in here?' That is likely to produce chaos. Instead, you can say things like, 'I need to have your attention when I am talking so when people are competing with me, it doesn't work. How do you suggest we deal with this problem?' It is not negotiable that you need an orderly class, but how you get it is negotiable. Consultation on rules doesn't mean a free-for-all. Negotiation of requirements is a variation of this privilege. One of the mistakes teachers make is not appearing to be in tune with the real world. Teachers do not win if they look like they are unaware of the real world. For example, a teacher who schedules a big test for the last class of class or for homecoming day should expect that students will not devote their full attention to either studying for or taking the test. A better approach is to let students participate in determining the date of an exam that falls around a big event.

I like to use alternatives as part of my privilege system. One of the alternatives I recommend, (and for some reason is not very popular), is that anyone who gets a B average can choose what homework they do. The whole point of doing homework is to make sure students learn the material. If you have demonstrated your achievement, then why do you have to do homework? However, if your grade falls below a B, then you might not be learning the materials so you have to do homework again. Since most students feel that not doing homework is a privilege, they will do their homework even more strenuously to maintain their average and keep the choice. Of course, some assignments can be required for all students, but skill and drill assignments are appropriate for giving some students the choice of working on. Judicious use of alternatives will contribute to students thinking you are reasonable.

If you will notice, most of the privileges we've discussed involve negotiating with students. In a democratic society that's the way things operate. If rules (seating arrangements, due dates, talking, etc.) are absolute, inflexible, and imposed upon those who are expected to obey them, then most students will rebel. For example, it is tempting for some teachers to say, 'There will be no talking in this classroom.' Now you've set students up to break the rule because there is no chance they can obey it at all times. A better idea is to say 'if you can talk when I don't need your attention and then when I need your attention you stop talking, we're cool. If you cannot stop talking on your own when I need your attention, then we will have to prohibit all talking.' You negotiate with people for behavior on demand. The objective is for students to believe that the teacher and the kids are on the same side. Your job is to get them to learn as easily and pleasantly as possible. Talking, walking, and borrowing privileges are important. By involving students in setting up the parameters for acceptable behavior in terms of talking, walking, and borrowing you create a positive, energetic, and democratic atmosphere in your classroom.

Rewards

You choose your own tokens and create your own rewards. A token system can be physical tokens (candy) or psychological tokens (stamps of giraffes versus elephants). You want to think of the widest range of token rewards available. Token rewards are everywhere, and they are effective. It is a token reward when you go to a school and you see a parking place marked for the Teacher of the Month. Hopefully, as you go through your teacher training, you'll be thinking about a rich catalog of token rewards appropriate for the age and interests of the students you'll be working with.

Personal attention is a very powerful reward. A lot of misbehavior in classrooms comes from students wanting to get your attention. Because of the demand for personal attention, you will have to make sure that you give it on your terms - not those of your students. It becomes a reward when you give it on your terms; you're being manipulated when the students set the terms.

Punishment

Try not to have behavior punishments that impact on academic performance. This is a mistake that many teachers make. The fact that a paper is late is a behavioral problem, not a learning problem. To foul up the prediction about how much someone has learned by taking points off because of their behavior isn't productive.

Since the invention of the computer technology has slowly grown in importance to American education. With the advancements involved with personal computers comes a huge opportunity for the educational institutions of America. There are few, if any, areas of society that are not affected to some extent by technology. An American youth now can't even work in a fast food chain without being exposed to computer technologies. With this being the case it becomes increasingly important to increase the amount of technology available to our school age children, as well as utilize the technology that is available to its fullest potential.

This, of course, begs the question: What is technology? According to Webster's New World Dictionary, technology is 1) the science or study of the practical or industrial arts, applied sciences, etc, and 2) applied science. This is an extremely important point because it shows that technology encompasses areas more diverse than computers. If technology can be seen as the application of the sciences on our everyday life, then we can begin to see technology all around us. At one time the main instrument for writing was the feather pen dipped in ink. Through the application of the sciences the pencil was invented, and further along came the ballpoint pen. This is eye opening, because it means that at one time the pencil was cutting edge technology. That is something that very few people can imagine. Few people see the pencil as technology.